Amy Dryer stands out in Fall Gallery Walk

It was about 12:45 last Sunday when we arrived at the Peter Robertson Gallery, our first stop on Edmonton's Fall Gallery Walk.
Gallery walks started in 1986. Twice a year, in spring and fall, galleries at the west end of Jasper Avenue and along 124th Street officially open their doors for for visitors to come and check out their exhibitions. Nine galleries participated in the October 18/19 event.
An appealing non-figurative work by Sheila Luck in the show window of the Peter Robertson Gallery turned out to be the most interesting of her show of new paintings, while the pieces by well-known local artists Giuseppe Albi and Clay Ellis were also on display.
Next up was the West End Gallery, which was featuring work by Peter Shostak. These were mainly prairie genre scenes -- pond hockey games and so on -- reminiscent of William Kurelek. The number of red sold stickers on his works suggests that Shostak does well by his painting.
Amy Dryer's paintings at the Front Gallery next door were the most engaging new works we saw during the course of the day. Canoes were the subject of several of these works characterized by bold lines and vibrant colour, along with the piece pictured here.  This Calgary-based artist associated her work with German Expressionism. Dryer's paintings, along with work by Verna Vogel, is on display at the Front Gallery until November 3.
The Douglas Udell Gallery was featuring Canola-field inspired paintings by Sylvain Voyer in its front room, along with a 1986 work by Dorothy Knowles, "The Path to Murray Point," on offer for a cool $62,000.
There were two more Knowles paintings in the gallery's inner sanctum, where work by the most renowned figures is customarily displayed. The artist will be at the Douglas Udell on Saturday, October  25 for the opening of a solo exhibition, Canadian Landscapes, which continues until November 8.
Over at the Bearclaw Gallery, which deals in First Nations art, there was an exhibition of paintings by Aaron Paquette. An established artist of  Cree and Cherokee descent, Paquette creates visionary works that reflect his background as a stained-glass artist and goldsmith.
Other galleries visited were the Lando, Bugera Matheson, Scott and Daffodil.

St. Paul to be site of extraterrestrial embassy?

If we build it, the extraterrestrials will come.
The International Raëlian Movement is calling on Canada to host an "embassy" constructed to encourage the return of the Elohim, an advanced space traveling civilization that its members believe are responsible for life on earth.
Representatives will make an application to the Canadian government for assistance with the project at a press conference called for tomorrow in Ottawa.

Concept for the proposed Elohim Embassy.

"The Canadian government knows that some extraterrestrial civilization shows signs of their presence in the intention to officially contact with the governments of planet Earth, since many UFO sightings have been recorded by the Canadian armed forces," said Raëlian spokesperson Daniel Turcotte.
"This civilization is called Elohim. They are the scientists and artists who created all forms of life on Earth, several thousands of years ago and they want to officially return in the embassy we will build for them when peace will prevail on the Earth."
Turcotte said the movement is requesting four square kilometres of land for the project, as well as a grant of extraterritoriality, "as for all embassies in the world."
In return, Canada would enjoy an immense prestige as an interplanetary hub and benefit from the Elohim's advanced technology in fields including nanotechnology, bio-robotics, energy sources, medicine transport and communications, with an economic impact in the billions of dollars, he declared.
If the Canadian government does give the go ahead for the Elohim Embassy project, a natural location for it would be St. Paul, Alberta.
Situating it in St. Paul would cut infrastructure costs, as the community northeast of Edmonton already has a UFO landing pad on which the Elohim could land their flying saucers when they return. A centennial project, the pad was officially opened by Minister of Defence Paul Hellyer on June 3, 1967.

The existing UFO landing pad in St. Paul, Alberta

The community has also taken steps toward extraterritorality.
"The area under the World's First UFO Landing Pad was designated international by the Town of St. Paul as a symbol of our faith that mankind will maintain the outer universe free from national wars and strife," reads a sign next to the pad. "That future travel in space for all intergalactic beings, all visitors from earth or otherwise are welcome to this territory and to the Town of St. Paul."
The International Raëlian Movement was founded in 1974 by French former journalist and racing car driver Claude Vorilhon, who took the name Raël, following what he described as encounters with extraterrestrials who provide him with an understanding of the nature and future of the world.
Tenets of the movement, which is believed to have some tens of thousands of followers in various parts of the world, including a few thousand in Quebec, include striving for world peace, sharing and democracy, support for advanced technology. They also hold positive views of sexuality, with campaigns promoting birth control and toplessness for women.
For the original press release go to http://tinyurl.com/puxkbj9. 

Don't forget EU triumphs says former Slovakia PM

The European Union faces grave problems, problems to which solutions are urgently needed. But that shouldn’t make us forget the reasons that the European community was formed and its genuine accomplishments.

Iveta Radičová speaking in 2010. 

That was the message of Iveta Radičová, former prime minister of Slovakia, speaking yesterday to an audience at the University of Alberta. She was in Edmonton on a visit organized by the Wirth Insitute for Austrian and Central European Studies.
A sociologist by training, Radičová was appointed a professor of sociology at Comenius University in Bratislava and founded the Centre for Analysis of Social Policy, one of Slovakia's first NGOs.
Radičová began her political career in 1990 as a member of People Against Violence.  After being defeated in Slovakia's 2009 presidential campaign, in June of the following year she became the country's prime minister at the head of a centre-right coalition.
In October 2011 her government fell after losing a non-confidence motion and Radičová did not run in the subsequent election. Following a fellowship in Oxford University in 2013, she is now lecturing at Comenius University.
In her presentation Radičová pointed to the ongoing financial crisis, which cost Europe two trillion Euros between 2007 and 2010 and resulted in 23 million unemployed, and has provoked widespread protest across the continent.
Serious ongoing problems facing the European Union include relatively low education and skills levels among citizens, an information technology deficit, corruption, and the need for improved financial regulation structural reform of the community. 

There was criticism in 2012 when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the European Union at a time of deep and widespread crisis,” Radičová noted.

“For what, the Nobel Prize?” she said. "At a time when there are protests in the streets, dissatisfied citizens, deficits and debt. For what, the Nobel Prize?”

Quoting reaction to that criticism by German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, Radičová said there are actually at least three good reasons for the prize: peace, democracy and welfare states.

“Don’t forget that the major reason for unification was the experience of the Second World War and trying to keep the peace on this continent," she stated, adding as an aside, “I hope we will have a chance to keep the peace on our own border with Ukraine.”

Just 40 years ago there were dictatorships in Southern Europe, 25 years ago in the Eastern European states that are now part of the EU.
“Democracy is a condition for success. We are trying to get our countries to become more participatory citizens”

The expansion of social benefits provided by states to their citizens has also been a major achievement of the EU.

“Human dignity is the main aim of all our efforts,” Radičová said. "It's said the present economic crisis is because the welfare state is too expensive. The opposite is that we can survive the crisis because of the welfare state.”

Improving education systems in the EU is a critical goal, she said.

“Education is the only way to get out of these problems.”

Rural post office closures hurting communities: survey

The closure of post offices is "another nail in the coffin of rural Canada," say respondents to a recent survey.

The survey of 1,635 mayors, reeves and band chiefs of rural locales where a post office has been closed examined the effects on the communities. 

Post offices are the heart of many rural communities.

The study was done by Anderson Consulting for the Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association.
It found that while some communities saw their federally run post office replaced with a franchise outlet, 53 per cent of communities have no postal outlet of any kind. 

Satisfaction with postal service was fairly low and some 24 per cent of communities expressed very high levels of dissatisfaction.
"The closure of the post office has taken away the personal touch from the community," said David Shulist, Mayor of Wilno, Ontario. "It is hard to talk to a metal box. Bring back our post office! We have lost our identity." 
"The closure of a post office in a municipality always has a negative effect and it is the whole population which feels it," stated a respondent from St. Marcellin, Quebec. "Potential new residents are little inclined to settle in a municipality which offers few services."

The study pointed out that Canada Post has shut down more than 1,700 small town and rural post offices since the 1980s. 
In spite of a 1994 moratorium on rural closures, which was reiterated in a Canadian Postal Service Charter announced in September 2009, the shutdowns are continuing right up to the present. 

It concludes that in the internet era, where sending and receiving parcels has grown, and where many small business depend even more on reasonably priced, reliable, local postal service, the closing or cutting back on postal services is hurting the development of rural Canada. 

The survey study recommends an end to all postal outlet closures and setting up national and provincial panels to examine postal service needs.

The survey study is available at http://cpaa-acmpa.ca/pub/ . 

The Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association, founded in 1902, represents more than 10,000 members comprising 5,651 full and part-time employees and 4,558 term employees of Canada Post, particularly in rural areas.

Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913-1918 commemorated

The Mary Sachs, one of the expedition vessels.

From 1913 to 1918 the Canadian Arctic Expedition located and mapped unoccupied islands in the far north and studied the Western Arctic and Victoria island.

Yesterday, this first major Canadian government research study undertaken in the North was commemorated at a ceremony at the  Vancouver Maritime Museum.

The ceremony included the unveiling of a Historic Sites and Monuments Board plaque marking the expedition as an event of national historic significance. 

The expedition, organized by Vihjalmur Stefansson, set out from Esquimalt Harbour on June 17, 1913. It was divided into the Northern Party, commanded by Stephansson, and a Southern Party led by zoologist Rudolph Anderson.

The expedition ships were headed for Herschel Island, but as a result of unusually harsh conditions all were frozen in before reaching their destination.

Eleven crew members died after the principal ship of the expedition, the Karluk, was carried off and eventually crushed by the ice. Six others died during the course of the expedition, which continued with newly purchased ships the North Star and the Polar Bear. 

As well as discovering land previously unknown even to the Inuit, including Brock, Mackenzie King, Borden, Meighen and Lougheed Islands, the expedition collected many animal, plant and rock specimens, cultural objects, and film and photographic records of Inuit life. The mission's legacy is reflected in the name of Sachs Harbour, named for the expedition's abandoned ship, the Mary Sachs.

A champion of Arctic development, Stephansson became known as the "prophet of the North," but was considered arrogant and a charlatan in some quarters. He later became widely discredited over a failed scheme to raise reindeer in the North, and his unauthorized claiming of Wrangel Island, north of Siberia, for Canada in 1921, which caused an international incident.

Another expedition participant was celebrated anthropologist Diamond Jenness, who took part in the traditional life of the Copper Inuit around Coronation Gulf.

The commemorative plaque was unveiled by Dr. Colin Carrie, parliamentary secretary to environment minister Leonna Aglukkaq. 

Two examples of the plaque will be installed, one at Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse national historic sites, overlooking Esquimalt Harbour in British Columbia, and one in Sachs Harbour, Northwest Territories.

The Government of Canada originally recognized the historic significance of the Canadian Arctic Expedition in 1925 and a plaque was originally erected in Ottawa.